MOVE deadline for Feb. 27, 2024 Presidential Primary

Both federal law and the Michigan Constitution require that no later than 45 days before the election, clerks transmit ballots to MOVE voters who have applied for ballots. The deadline to transmit ballots for the Feb. 27, 2024 presidential primary is Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. This deadline always falls on a Saturday and requires strict compliance, meaning that, unlike other deadlines in the election law, the Saturday MOVE deadline does not get bumped back to Monday. You must transmit ballots by Saturday. The QVF Helpdesk will be available from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 13 to assist clerks with questions about utilizing the QVF to issue MOVE ballots. 

If something occurs in your jurisdiction that prohibits you from meeting this deadline (for example, litigation delays or ballot printing), please email Adam Fracassi (MDOS-BOERegulatory@Michigan.gov)  as soon as possible.

Download the MOVE Compliance Report

To avoid missing the MOVE deadline, there are many tools available in QVF – including a report which details every MOVE voter in your jurisdiction. The information in the report is populated by the information you have entered in the individual voter’s QVF profile. You can find it under the Reports tab, titled “Military and Overseas Voter Compliance Report.”

Verify the information on the report

Once you have located the report, ensure that every MOVE voter is properly entered into QVF. If you have a MOVE voter who does not appear on the spreadsheet, then the MOVE status in the voter’s profile needs to be updated. A voter appearing on this report is currently registered as a MOVE voter. If the voter is an overseas civilian who has returned to the U.S., you should clear their UOCAVA status.

Otherwise, the voter should receive a ballot. All requests for a MOVE ballot submitted on or after Nov. 7, 2023 are valid for every election in 2024. In other words, MOVE voters are not required to submit a separate request for each election in 2024. Note that with the passage of Proposal 2022-2, all voters (including MOVE voters) may now complete a single application to be mailed an absent voter ballot for all future elections. However, MOVE voters must submit a FPCA each year to ensure MOVE protections and allow enough time for the ballot to be returned.

What happens if the deadline is missed?

For all timely requested ballots, if you send a MOVE ballot late, the MOVE/UOCAVA voter is provided with an extension of time equivalent to the number of days the clerk was late in delivering the ballot, so long as the ballot is postmarked by Election Day. The MOVE ballots received during the extension period shall be counted and tabulated in the final results. MCL 168.759a(16).   

Also note that Proposal 2022-2 provided a six-day grace period following Election Day during which MOVE ballots postmarked by Election Day are considered timely received.  

Update your contact information

After the deadline, BOE staff will review this report and reach out to local clerks to troubleshoot any issues that may occur. You may also receive a call from your county clerk. Please make sure you are checking your email that has been provided in eLearning or update it if necessary.   

Be sure to contact us with any questions you may have. We are here to support you, so if you are running into problems, do not hesitate to email Adam Fracassi or Robin Hiar at BOERegulatory@Michigan.gov.

MOVE transmission– Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024

The same procedures for MOVE ballot transmission that applied in the 2020 Presidential Primary will also apply for the Presidential Primary this year. For a MOVE voter who has indicated a ballot type, record the ballot type and send the ballot as you would for a typical MOVE voter. However, if a military or overseas voter requests a ballot sent by postal mail, but has not submitted a ballot type selection, send the voter a special letter (template linked below) with both a Democratic Party ballot and a Republican Party ballot. If the jurisdiction is conducting a special election in conjunction with the Presidential Primary, also send a nonpartisan ballot without a Presidential Primary. The pdf ballot generated out of QVF for MOVE voters will include both party options and a nonpartisan section, if applicable. This differs from the process used for permanent AV voters who are not MOVE voters; those voters must make a ballot type selection or will either receive no ballot or a non-partisan ballot if applicable. Detailed instructions and a template for an email that may be sent to a MOVE voter is available through the eLearning Center.  

The instructions to send for a MOVE voter receiving a MOVE ballot by email or fax and by mail are also available on eLearning.

Following the action taken by the local election commission to adjust precinct boundary lines effective for the Feb. 27th election, only voters affected by a precinct number change must be issued a new voter identification card listing the new precinct number. If the precinct boundary change requires a change in polling place for the voter, the new voter identification card will reflect the new polling place. The deadline to notice voters of any change in a polling place is 45 days prior to the first election implementing the change, or Jan. 13, 2024.

Finally, we are aware of an issue with generating voter ID cards using the Custom Voter List. The QVF Redistricting Guide (csod.com) includes instructions for using the redistricting tool to generate ID cards for voters in certain regions.

Accessibility spotlight

BOE is continuing to feature a series of videos and articles designed to increase familiarity with general accessibility requirements and best practices.

As election officials, it is critical that we support all individuals’ right to vote and provide the necessary resources to help voters feel more engaged and confident. 

We believe that this series will be educational and help us all continue to ensure that everyone can vote privately and independently whether they vote at a polling place or at home. We encourage you to review the previous accessibility spotlights and use these videos in your trainings.

In our fifth installment, we are featuring a video titled, “Disability Rights Michigan–- Election Worker Training.” This video provides excellent perspective and is a very good training tool. To view the video, select the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ_3RA089XQ.

Reminders

Early voting sites and polling place notice

Under the recent early voting legislation, once a polling place or early voting (EV) site is approved, the appropriate clerk must send a notice specifying its location to each voter eligible to vote at that polling place or EV site. Because the Feb. 27, 2024 Presidential Primary is the first time early voting will be available to all voters, those who did not participate in the November early voting pilot must receive the notice. The notice must be sent by Jan. 13, 2024, and must include all of the following:

• The days and hours of operation at each site for each day early voting is offered
• All EV sites established or changed by Dec. 29 (the  60^th day before the election) where the voter is eligible to vote
• If any additional polling places have been established or changed for the Presidential Primary, their locations

If a temporary change to a polling place/EV site occurs between Jan. 12 and Jan. 27 (for an EV site offering nine days of early voting) or between Jan. 12 and Feb. 6 (for polling places), clerks must send an additional notice. If a temporary change is necessary within 20 days of the election or start of EV because the location has been damaged, destroyed, or rendered inaccessible or unusable, a notice need not be sent but the clerk must post a notice on the former polling place location/EV as well as on the local website. Finally, in that instance, the clerk must email Elections@Michigan.gov with the subject line “Polling place temporary change” so BOE can indicate the change on its website.

The notice of EV sites must be provided as a separate notice by mail via postcard or letter. EV site locations are not listed on regular voter identification cards. EV site notices and voter identification cards are intended to be separate mailings.

A sample EV site notice postcard is available on eLearning.

Presidential Primary Ballot Selection Form update

As discussed in the Dec. 21 News Update, the Presidential Primary Ballot Selection Form, is available in eLearning. Although the form cannot be generated directly out of the QVF mass mailing module, BOE has created a report that will allow clerks to mass mail the application on their own or with a vendor.

The “Presidential Primary Ballot Selection Form” report can be found in QVF under “Absentee Voter” on the “Reports” page. This report has been updated so you can choose a label format from the “Report Style” options dropdown, either two or three rows across on a sheet of labels. An updated guide on using this report is available in eLearning under “Quick Guide – Ballot Selection Form.”

We recommend that you print two copies of these labels, one for the outgoing mail to the voter, and one for the voter return envelope which must include prepaid postage.

The deadline for sending the form to voters on the permanent mail ballot list who had not made a political party ballot selection was Dec. 29. If a permanent mail ballot voter has not returned their ballot selection form by Jan. 18 (40 days before the Presidential Primary), the local clerk must notify the voter by phone, email, and text message, if available, that the voter will not receive a Presidential Primary ballot unless they make a party selection. If the local clerk does not have the voter’s phone number or email address, the clerk must notify the permanent mail ballot voter by mail and may also notify the voter by any other available method.

BOE strongly recommends use of an office email address or phone number for notifications such as these, rather than a clerk’s personal email address or phone number.